Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-04-18
Dwellers in Other Worlds.

Dwellers in Other Worlds
The researches of astronomers have
shown that Sirius is 900, 900 times
as far from the earth as the sun,
which itself is separated from us by
a mighty abyss of 81, 100000 miles,
SAYS a writer in the ST. Louis Globe.
When we reflect that this distance,
enormous as it appears, is but span
distance which separate US from the
stars, and that beyond these are 9TH
ers stretching away at intervals which
to US appear Ike different orders of
infinities, we gain faint idea of the
immensity of the universe.
Imaginative investigators have
clothed the suppositious inhabitants
of othe spheres with human form and
characteristics. Even so great an as
tronomer as Sir William Herschel,
at one time held that the sun might
have human inhabitants. The peri
Odic comets have been held by many
To be reserved for the future torment
of the wicked. The special adapta-
bility of these bodies to this purpose
will be at once admitted, when it is
remembered that the comet, in the
course of its eccentric orbit, sweeps
an very near the sun, at which time
the unfortunate inhabitants would be
subjected to the most awful scorch-
ing. Scarcely the sufferers accustom
themselves to this torrid climate,
when the comet bears them out be-
yond the orbit of Neptune, where
they are subjected to an intensity of
cold of which we have no conception.
Thus, alternately roasting and freez-
ing, the slow ages of eternity wear
away.
From the earliest study of astrono-
my, the possibility of life in other
worlds has been a matter of constant
speculation. The literature of the
subject is enormous, but throughout
the Imagination of the writers has
played so prominent part, and facts
have been so inextricably interviewer
with speculation, that it is difficult
for the non-scientifc reader to know
where the one ceases and the other
begins. In their physical character
istics the major planets of our SUMS
system may be roughly divided into
two classes.
The four great outer planets-Ju-
piter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
are still in the condition of highly
heated bodies. The telescope shows
the surface of Jupiter to be in a state
of continual change. Heated vapors
rise from the interior, cool, and fall
back into the boiling mass below.
The most frightful storms occur in
this heated envelope, compared to
which our terrestrial tornadoes are
but trifing. Jupiter is, in fact, a
sort of secondary sun.
Saturn is, apparently, somewhat
further advanced in the cooling pro-
cess, and its surface more quiet than
that of Jupiter, but all the evidence
points to the conclusion that no solid
crust exists upon it.
Uranus and Neptune present no
features which can be made out by
the telescope. The spectroscope
shows the presence of absorption
bands Indicating dense atmospheres.
Most probably they are in approx
mately the condition of Saturn. To
them the sun presents only the ap
pearance of tiny disc, giving scarce
ly appreciable light and heat.
Between the group just mentioned
and that nearer the sun is a belt of
small planets, 264 of which have
been discovered to date. These little
bodies are distinct globes from 10 to
300 miles I'M diameter. The entire
absence Of an atmosphere at once
precludes the idea that they can sus-
tain life.
The inner group Of planets, Of
which the earth is one, have many
striking physical characteristics in
common, and among these neighbors
Of the earth, if anywhere, we should
expect TO find evidences Of ability 10
sustain life. All four are small bod
les compared to the giant inter-plan-
cts, all have solid Gusts, and, so far
as determined, their times Of rotation
on their axis are approximately the
same. Mercury, the planet nearest
the sun, shows some indications Of an
atmosphere Its variations of heat,
on account Of its eccentric orbit, are
extreme. When at perihelion the
heat and light Of the sun beat down